Figure 1.--One observer identifies this as a 1840s Austraian image, it looks to HBC more like the 1850s or even the 60s. The boy's outfit looks similar to styles we have noted in Bavaria. |
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Austria in the 19th century was not a small relatively back-water country, but the center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, one of the major European powers. Austrian boys wore the common early 19th century styles of skeleton suits and tunics. We notice boys at mid-century wearing jackets and long trousers with waistcoats and neck stocks rather like adults might wear. One oserver dates the portrait of the boy here to the 1840s.
She reports, "The dating for this piece is generical one for the style is late Biedermeier and typical for the 1840. It is indeed a wonderful and very representative work." (HBC is not sure what is meant by Biedermeier, but it appears to the 1820s-40s.) HBC would probably date it more to the 1850s or even the 60s. Age diferented clothing was much more common in the late 19th century. I'm not sure just when they began wearing lederhosen, other than as rural dress, probably the mid- or late-19th century. About this time the sailor suit was imported and became quite popular. Few boys' garments proved more popular in Austria than the sailior suit. At the time the Austrian-Hungarian Empire had a small navy which it deployed in the Mediteranean. Popular 19th century boys' styles that do not seem to have been important in Austria were the kilt and Eton collar.
Austria under the Hapsburgs was seen as the dominant German power. The Hapsburgs were rouinely elected Holy Roman Emperor. (The Holy Roman Empire for centuries was a confederation of German states. This only changed in the 19th century. Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire. Prussia and Austria had been two of the major powers that resisted Napoleon's conquest of Europe in the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo (1815), the Council of Vienn returned Europe to consevative monarical rule. There then developed a conflict bewtween conservtive monarchy and liberal democracy culminating in the revolutions of 1848-49 in which the Hapsburg monarchy almost fell. A conflict developed between Austria and Prussia as to who would dominate Germany. A further conflict was whether the force of German nationalism would be captured by liberal democracy or conservative military-oligarchy and monarchy. Count Otto von Bismarck helped guide the Prussian Hollezolleran monarchy with its military taditions unto a commanding position in Germany. The issue was settled by the Austro-Prussian War in which Austria and its German allies were convincingly defeated by the Prussian army (1866).
Austria was in 1867 reinvented. Rather than the center of Germany, it became the center of amulti-ethnic empire--the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Ausgleich made the Austrian Empire the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the crown the Dual Monarchy. The question of nationality was at the center of the Empire from its very creation. Many hoped that the Ausgleich the first step in the creation of a federalist system in which other nationalities would eventuallyalso be recognized. Others including many Hungarians wanted national independence. Here the nationalist aspirations was often more the aspirations of a relatively small group of radical writers and intelectuals than the average subject of the Empire. The nationality question would eventually lead to the assasination of the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and World War I (1914).
We have only limited information at this time, but have begun to collect some information on Austrian boys' clothing during the 19th century.
Austrian boys wore the common early 19th century styles of skeleton suits and tunics. While we still have very limited information on Austrian boys' clothing in the early 19th century, we do have ome informtion on Napoleon II. His mother was an Austrian princess. After Napoleon surendered in 1814. he was taken to Vienna and raised there as the Count of Rome. He wore skeleton suits with long curls. I do not know if he wore tunics.
We notice boys at mid-century wearing jackets and long trousers with waistcoats and neck stocks rather like adults might wear. One oserver dates the portrait of the boy here to the 1840s (figure 1). She reports, "The dating for this piece is generical one for the style is late Biedermeier and typical for the 1840. It is indeed a wonderful and very representative work." Biedermeier was a popular style that dominated the art, ceramics, glass, furniture, and fashion of the Austrian Empire when it still was a major influnce throughout Europe. Vienna was the center of Biedermeier, but it was also influntial in Germany. The style was was fashionable about 1815-48. These dates of course begin with the end of the Napoleonic wars to the liberal revolutions of 1848. Biedermeier is a style, especially applied to furniture and art, but also fashion. It reflexes a simple, bourgeois society where people were content with a slow-paced way of life. HBC would probably date it more to the 1850s or even the 60s. Age differented clothing was much more common in the late 19th century. I'm not sure just when they began wearing lederhosen, other than as rural dress, probably the mid- or late-19th century.
About this time the sailor suit was imported and became quite popular. Few boys' garments proved more popular in Austria than the sailior suit. At the time the Austrian-Hungarian Empire had a small navy which it deployed in the Mediteranean. Popular 19th century boys' styles that do not seem to have been important in Austria were the kilt and Eton collar. Available images suggest that Austrian boys wore many of the same styles seen in Germany at the time. We seem to note more of a French influence for younger boys, bit that still needs to be confimed. We have some information on individuals. We note the Malha brothers in Salzburg. We also note a German-Austrian family living in Budapest. At the time, of course, Budapest was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We have several images of these Budapest brothers.
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